Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-06-02
PROHIBITION VS.. HIGH LICENSE.

PROHIBITION VS.. HIGH LICENSE.
The following is an extract ola letter
written by Julius H. Seelye, OF AM
hurst College. 1t speaks for itself:
I. High license puts no restriction
pnon the buyer. He can get his liquor,
If he wishes it, just IS copiousiy as De-
fore. One saloon will supply the cfav-
inc of five hundred-or fve thausanu,
for that matter-as we'll as many. Ihe
evils of intemperance are not, tnereiofe,
necessarily reduced by restricting the
number of the saloons. Their abolition
rather than their reductlon IS What we
need and ought to seek.
2. License, high or low, takes away
what ought to be, and what In
healthy community would be, an I'M
nortant moral restriction from the sell
Ter Tt removes from him the con-
demnation of the commu nifty, and JUS
tifies him, 1t makes his act legal. His
moral sense, easily blinded by tine
enormous profits of his trade, Is thus
paralyzed. He becomes this what we
And him to be, obdurate, rapacious, an
evil man and seducer, who wakes worse
and worse. / do not wish to condemn
him or apy man, but I do not believe
there is any trade so demoralizing to
the trader any class of sales which does
the seller so much moral mischief,
as that in intoxicating drinks. AND
to this damage the community contrib
utes by licensing him in his trade.
3. The-moral tone of the community
is lowered by licensing the liquor traffic.
Whether it is right or wrong, per Sc,
to buy or sell or drink intoxicating liq-
uors Is a question do not now care to
argue. This question loses its interest
to me in the face of the appalling facts
with which the liquor traffic confronts
us. There is no single channel through
which such depths of misery flow over
the human race as through this. NO
rayages of disease. no devastation OF
nature, no kinds of vice or crime, work
such woe as this. Such statement no
Intelligent person will be likely to
doubt, and no honest one would deny.
Now. to license the liquor traffic on the
view that the enOrmity of this evil can
be egulated-impossible as experience
has thus tar shown this to be-to sane
ton the opening of these foodgates on
the pretense that to keep them shut is
to infringe upon the liberty which a
wise government should ever guard, is
not only, as it seems TO me, the enslave'
ment of the multitude for the freedom
of the few-an attempt whose result II
likely to be the bondage of all-but il
makes the community ltSelI q party u
wrong doing. This cannot be done
without lowering its own moral tone.
4. The revenue from license fails
heaviest where the burden ought to b'
the least. The cost of the license, while
it may add to the price of the liquor
sold, does not. so far as l can learn
diminish the amount of the liquo
bought and consumed. Practically, thu
cost of liquor within the limits which
any license is likely to put seems t
have little to do with the consumption
An Incorporate man is not likely t.
drink more because it is cheap, nor les
because it is dear. The difference be
tween three cents a glass and fou
makes no appreciatiye difference will
him. But the family of the drunkard
Alas! alas! the great revenues for hIgl
license, the enormous taxes on intoXi
eating drinks, are wrung from tn
wretchedness of worse than Widowed
wives and worse than orphaned chill
dren!
Though I cannot believe in high Ii
cense, am
Ever most truly yours,
JULIUS ii. SEELYE.
AMHERST COLLEGE, AMHERST, Mass